13. Sweet Plans

Chapter 13

Sweet Plans

A s soon as I saw her form disappear inside, I gritted my teeth. I had wanted to walk her to her door, perhaps take the opportunity to kiss her… However, she was out of the car before my driver had the chance to open the door for her, just like last time. Obviously, she had never been treated like a lady before and that was another thing I would soon change. She was a fucking goddess, and therefore she would soon find herself being treated like one, prisoner or not.

But then I kept telling myself that I just needed to be patient. What I would not be patient about, was everything else I could do without her knowledge.

I pulled out my phone at the ready to make my demands, all smiles and tender sentiments gone in an instant now she was no longer present. My tense muscles were back, along with my foul mood and stern countenance.

Fuck, but how was it possible that I already missed her? We had only just pulled away from her street, meaning it hadn't even been minutes.

"Andras, I am sending you the address of our Moirai. I want a security detail on her at all times. I want to be made aware of all her movements. I also want a detailed report and every piece of information about her that can be found. Medical records, family, jobs, education, and most of all, finances. I suspect there is considerable debt. I need details so these can be paid off. I want fucking everything there is to find, do you understand?" I ordered, and he replied with the same respect he always did.

"It will be done, My Lord."

"Good. That will be all," I said, pulling the phone away from my ear and ready to end the call.

"No, that won't fucking be all!" I heard my brother snap in the background before he obviously snatched the phone from our second, making me roll my eyes as I raised the phone back to my ear.

"I have been waiting for you to call me!" My brother sounded as though he was barely holding onto his rage and I confess, I hadn't heard him this rattled in a long time.

"Calm yourself, Tal, she only this minute left the fucking car," I said, trying to pacify him with the truth. Although it was a pointless endeavor as I knew nothing would. Not until we had her in our possession. Something he confirmed when he gritted out,

"Why can't we just fucking kidnap her again?!"

"You know the reasons why… we don't want to terrify her if there is another way," I said, yet again trying for reason.

"Oh yes, I forgot… so you get to date her, meanwhile, I am going out of my fucking mind with jealously because you get to spend time with her and I get to what, Vic…? Sit at home like some lonely, lost, horny fucker, jacking one out and tugging on my cock mercilessly to the memory of how she feels and tastes." I couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"There he goes, fucking laughing again… can you believe this shit?" he said, obviously aiming this question at Andras.

"I understand your frustrations…"

"The fuck you do!" he interrupted, but I continued on as if he hadn't, admittedly, killed others for far less.

"…But we stick to the plan until…"

"Until what, a volcano shits snow?!" he interjected yet again, making me grit my teeth and snap,

"Until it no longer works, alright?!"

I heard his sigh, prompting me to do the same. I tried to view this from his side, knowing I would be far worse had our roles been reversed. I also knew that his patience would only last so long. Meaning that my hopes to ease her into the new life we would soon force her into inevitably came with a time limit.

"We can talk about this when I get there," I stated, making him grumble.

"Fine, but I am telling you now, brother, this plan of yours has a fucking expiry date."

He then ended the call and left me with nothing to do but release another frustrated sigh, because half of me was tempted to have the car turned around and do as my brother wished. To give into the impulse of taking what was ours and damning the consequences. But then how could I do that when the stakes were so high?

The highest they had ever been.

As soon as I returned back to the penthouse, it turned out that the only way to calm my brother was to give him a play-by-play account of my evening with her. Of course, even in the short journey back he had done his research, discovering as much as he could about her now that he knew her name. To the point that the second I walked inside, I found him sitting at the kitchen island with his laptop open in front of him and a half-finished bottle of Mastiha.

Great, I was in for a long night.

Mastiha was a drink from our homeland, the Greek island, Chios. It just so happened to also be one of the only drinks that affected Vampires as old as we were. Hence why Talon had chosen it, familiarity be damned at this point.

Clearly, his mood had soured further, unlike the flavor of the drink. Its hints of semi-sweet fennel, anise, and mint weren't to everyone's taste, but we had been drinking it for as long as we could remember.

In fact, the Mastic the drink was made from had been harvested for at least 2,500 years since Greek antiquity. The first mention of actual mastic 'tears' was by Hippocrates, also known as liquid gold. A highly aromatic resin that was cultivated from the mastic tree. One extracted according to a centuries-old practice involving a sharp tool called a kentitiri that was used to slice into bark and make it bleed. Although that wasn't all they were useful for… I contained my deadly smirk as I thought back to more brutal times.

"She is fucking broke and look at this, three years ago it seems as if she was an obsessive gambler and then two years ago, it all stopped as her money ran dry," my brother said without even looking up from the screen, instead knocking back another swig straight from the bottle.

I frowned at this information, shrugging out of my suit jacket and tossing it over the back of one of the bar stools as I approached. Then I grabbed the bottle and swallowed down the clear liquid that most would have believed to be vodka.

"That doesn't seem likely," I admitted, and despite knowing very little about her, I felt like I had seen enough of her personality tonight to say that having a gambling addiction didn't seem like her at all.

"Well, you would know more than I," my brother said bitterly, making me slap him on the back and say,

"Patience is a virtue."

"Beware the fury of a patient man," he replied with a grit of teeth, making me smirk as I reached the cabinets and grabbed a glass so as I wasn't swigging from the bottle like a drunk. Then once I filled my glass, I walked toward the seating area knowing my brother would follow.

"So, come on, tell me… what did you think of her?" he asked, bringing the bottle with him and unlike me, forgoing the formalities of a glass. I looked at my drink, the clear liquid clinging to the edge of the glass as I swirled it round.

"Perfection," I replied grinning.

"Yeah, just wait until you taste her."

"Which part?" I asked with a smirk, making him groan.

"Don't put that in my head, for fuck sake, I thought I was going to yank my cock clean off in the shower."

I laughed and couldn't help but ask, "Did it help?"

"Fuck no, but at least my balls are no longer blue and it sated the urge to go hunt her down."

I shrugged at that. But then my mind went back to the evening.

"She is… fuck me, Talon, she is… everything," I admitted, scrubbing a hand over my head as her sweet face still haunted me.

"Yes, well I would appreciate you telling me all about ‘our everything', as I didn't exactly have much chance at conversation when I was with her." The bitterness in his tone was easy to detect.

"No, but you got to taste her," I pointed out, making him tip the neck of the bottle my way.

"Then we both have gained as much as we have suffered," he replied, before drinking back more of the Mastiha.

He was right. We each had experienced a different side to her and despite craving her blood the way I did, I also knew that after this time spent with her… I had gained far more than Tal had. So, I told him,

"She is funny."

"She is?" he asked, seemingly surprised by this knowledge.

"Yes, very much so. You would have barely recognized me tonight," I confessed, making my brother nod at me before saying,

"The grin you show me now tells me as much."

"I laughed," I admitted, making his eyes widen further when I added, "More than once."

"Jesus," He muttered and again, I grinned.

"I can feel her thawing my heart and warming my life's blood."

His jealous gaze softened for the first-time hearing this.

"Then it is as it should be, Brother," he said, calmer now he could see what it was she was doing to me.

"Soon, Talon, you will get to experience her soon, I promise you," I told him, gripping his shoulder and making him relax at the gesture.

"So, what is the plan then?" I looked out the window when he asked this, seeing the city lit up like the stars had fallen and blanketed the earth. Like we were gods, sitting in our ivory tower made from glass and steel, looking down at the weaker race we shared this world with. The glowing vista and the thought of mortals now held new meaning to me as I remembered what she said about having a view of the park. The differences between us was something I knew she would use like a weapon against me.

Well, little one, let the war battle begin, I thought, sharing such with my brother as I told him exactly what the plan was when it came to her.

"We do what we do best when having something to conquer."

"Discover all there is to know and use it against them?" I turned to look at him and with what I knew was a cunning grin, replied,

"Precisely." Then I tipped my glass to him before drinking, making him swig from the bottle once more.

"Starting with my date tomorrow night."

He groaned and muttered, "Lucky bastard."

"Yes, yes I am," I readily agreed, making him quick to point out,

"I wouldn't mind but I am better with the ladies than you."

My wry look said it all.

"I didn't do too badly tonight, I will have you know," I argued, trying not to grin as I thought back to how often I made her pulse quicken, the slight hint of her arousal telling me all I needed to know.

"If this is the part you tell me you kissed her, then I will rip your cock off."

I laughed at that before putting him out of his misery.

"You could fucking try, little Brother… But for your information, no, I didn't kiss her."

Again, he visibly relaxed, telling me we were going to have to take care when navigating this shared relationship of ours.

Of course, my brother and I had shared a woman in the bedroom before, many times in fact. But a woman we cared about that we would eventually want to make our wife? No, that we had not done, meaning that this would be different indeed.

"And what of her family? Is there much there in the way of an obstacle?" Tal asked, and I knew why, as he was already anticipating kidnapping her, because he no doubt didn't believe my plan would work. That or he knew he wouldn't last long enough to give it time to work. Either way, he wanted the facts so as he could make plans of his own just in case. And I couldn't even fucking blame him for it.

"No, I don't believe so. In fact, I want that looking in to."

"Why? Do you believe some fuckwit hurt her?" he practically growled the question, obviously detecting something in my tone to be concerned with.

"I don't know, but there is a reason she left Pennsylvania at eighteen and never looked back," I said, that furious tick back and once more working away at my jaw.

"Then if that be the case, the blood of her enemies will almost be as sweet as her own."

I nodded at the view, vowing with dark intent just before I sipped my drink back, and told him,

"Yes…"

"Sweet indeed."